FFVIII: Konsparicy and Theories

NOTE: THIS STUFF IS NEITHER NEW NOR MADE UP/STARTED BY ME. I'M JUST SHARING STUFF I FIND INTERESTING. SOME OF THEM ARE ACTUALLY FALSE, TOO.

Give the screen a VERY good look. 

Recently, I've been replaying Final Fantasy VIII after a long while since last time I played it. I'm so far at the very beginning of Disc 2 but I still recall lots of stuff from the game. It was, albeit confusing, memorable. Here, I won't be ranting about the good and the bad the happened in the game, I'm going to share some theories and stuff that gives the mind something to think about instead. The main focus will be: Sorceresses.

What is a "Sorceress"?

A "Sorceress" is a human being that was gifted by The Great Hyne. What is the Great Hyne? It's some sort of a "God" who "Created the mankind" and was the first ever "Sorceress". Okay. Since we're talking about "Sorceresses", I'd like to believe that this word is unisex in the FFVIII world, because I've been reading everywhere but The Great Hyne is always referred to as "He". Confusing, I know, but try to get used to that. The whole Hyne thing is very perplexing and long, so I won't go deep into it. All that is both around the internet and in the game. Okay where were we? Hyne gave power to certain people and those people are called "Sorceresses". Sorceresses are the only humans that can use magic without any help of anything such as Junctioning GFs Also, they're probably immortal, according to Edea. Sorceresses have to pass their power to either a potential sorceress or another actual sorceress before they die. In this game, we only know four sorceresses: Ultimecia, Rinoa, Edea, and Adel. I'll talk about Adel first.

Adel The She

This is a female person. Yes. I didn't
believe that, either.

Sorceress Adel is one of the known sorceresses in the game and let's start with something: IT LOOKS LIKE A HE BUT CHARACTERS REFER TO ADEL AS "SHE". It's probably the most confusing thing ever. I've been discussing it with some friends on Twitter (big shoutout to them awesome people!) but we couldn't find a bloody clue what exactly Adel is. I'd like to think Adel is a genderless entity, because that makes things easier. The masculine body is really confusing and it's not really the most feminine face ever. 

To make things even more confusing: in the French version, characters use both he and she while referring to Adel, and it's pronounced as "Aderu" in Japanese which sounds exactly like Adele. We didn't need all that, did we?

INTERESTING FACT: Did you ever give that screen in Timber a good look? You know, the screen where the Dollet President's speech was broadcasted. Before it, there were red letters appearing when the screen was showing nothing. As random as they looked like, they are actually a very early reference to Adel. In that screen, the letters make up words like "IAMALIVEHERE", "BRINGMEBACKTHERE", and "IWILLNEVERLETYOUFORGETABOUTME". Noticing this itself is a crazy achievement, but understanding the meaning behind it is a much crazier one. Those are words by Adel him/herself, since (to my understanding) the place where Adel lies is the reason radio is disrupted in the planet. Kinda scary. The whole sorceresses thing won't let me sleep tonight.

ULTIMECIA: Short Bio

Ultimecia is seriously badass-looking.

Ultimecia is all that is evil in the FFVIII universe. She's basically a sorceress from a future far far away. Her plan is to "compress" time so that she can absorb all time and space, and that'll make her an unstoppable being. Ultimecia throughout the game is basically Edea. Edea in the game did nothing by her own free will, instead, she was being controlled by Ultimecia the whole damn time. It's sort of crazy when you think about it; Ultimecia was around the whole time! She gave that speech in Deling, she fought the party, and she commanded Galbadia to do her bidding. She's probably one of the most overlooked villains in the series. But I can't blame the gamers since developers never actually gave her enough spotlights to shine. She deserved more IMO.

ULTIMECIA: Mind-Provoking Stuff

It's in the wingssss. (And the eyes, and the hair, and
the makeup)

The Rinoa-Ultimecia theory: I don't know how many of you read about this, but it is a very famous theory sparked by fans. I'll go deep into it: In the future, Squall dies and Rinoa gets very sad about that. She badly wants to bring him back so she tries to use time compression so that she can control time and bring him back to life. So, in other words, Ultimecia is Rinoa in the future. 

During the game, Matron (Edea) tells Rinoa that the power of a sorceress can corrupt her, and when Squall died, Rinoa lost herself and her powers controlled her, and that turned her into the evil Ultimecia. Also, Rinoa and Ultimecia got lots of similarities. According to the FFWikia:

As a sorceress, Ultimecia is almost the mirror opposite of Rinoa: Ultimecia is an evil sorceress with black wings, while Rinoa is pure and has white wings; Rinoa has black hair while Ultimecia has white-silver hair; Ultimecia wears a prominent red dress, while Rinoa's sweeper is light-blue; Rinoa uses Angelo while fighting and Ultimecia uses Griever; Griever is based on a lion, while Angelo is a dog.

It is also believed that Griever is actually a creation by Ultimecia based on Squall, since his pendant is called "Griever" and when Squall died, Rinoa was "grieved" by his death. Other theories say that Squall IS Griever, but I didn't go deep into that theory.

That is one amazing ring.

Unfortunately, all of that is FALSE. Square already denied such theories and said that Ultimecia wanted to compress time just because she didn't want to die, which kills the entire theory. Also, Griever is actually a Guardian Force created and drawn from Squall's mind. 

Still, after what I just wrote, it's a very interesting theory and almost fits in perfectly. It's also supported by the fact that Ultimecia has no background whatsoever. It really fills in lots of gaps left by some points in the story, such as the Griever-Squall relationship, and why only Ultimecia and Rinoa got wings, and so on. I find this theory incredibly correct even though it isn't. The story could go very well with it. If all that was true, though, I'm sure the whole world would go mad.

The K Thingy: Exaktly before you battle Ultimecia, she starts talking some krap to the SeeDs she's about to konfront. Strangely (for me at least), she replaces "C" with "K". Like when she said "Kurse all SeeDs". And as the battles go on, she stops using Ks and starts using words normally. I'm not sure whether the developers forgot about the whole K manner of speech or she just changed the way she talks as she changed forms. The K thing itself is very strange and kinda random. I never understood the meaning of it, or the reason behind it. A Mortal Kombat random reference? I'd love that.

This pic isn't related to what I'm talking about. Just wanted
to say that is part was SCARY AS HELL

Rinoa Fainting: Okay, this one is just something that personally confused me. At the very final part in Disc 2, after the battle against Edea, when the party defeat Edea, she gives her sorceress power into Rinoa, which in turn makes Ultimecia inside Rinoa. Ultimecia then commands Seifer from within Rinoa's body to bring the Lunatic Pandora back to the surface. After that, Rinoa collapses. Why? I don't understand why this happened. Was it mentioned anywhere? My theory is that the power transfer suddenly to Rinoa was overwhelming to the point that her body couldn't handle it, therefore she went through this coma. But this theory isn't proven by anything during the game, which makes me wonder if it's true or not.

All that what was at the top of my head. Lots of stuff from Final Fantasy VIII was left to interpretation by us gamers. It does give a lot to think about, but it would have been better if they gave out more on Ultimecia's background, and gave her more screen time because she showed glimpses of a great antagonist when she controlled Edea, and Edea did get lots of love.